SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – at 6:05 P.M. ET:

BUT DID THEY HAVE GOOD RESTAURANTS? – From USA Today:   An astrophysicist says he may have found evidence of alternate or parallel universes by looking back in time to just after the Big Bang more than 13 billion years ago.  While mapping the so-called "cosmic microwave background," which is the light left over from the early universe, scientist Ranga-Ram Chary found what he called a mysterious glow, the International Business Times reported.  Chary, a researcher at the European Space Agency’s Planck Space Telescope data center at CalTech, said the glow could be due to matter from a neighboring universe "leaking" into ours, according to New Scientist magazine.  Watch.  Obama will say they all disappeared because of global warming.

OUR AMERICAN FUTURE – From USA Today:   For those people who date back to pre-handheld-device days and who found it hard enough to concentrate on homework even without digital distractions, the sight of multitasking teens is mind-boggling.  It’s also more prevalent than you might think.  A new report by Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based non-profit that tracks children and their technology use, finds that teens age 13 to 18 spend almost nine hours a day – that’s longer than they usually sleep – on "entertainment media," which includes things like checking out social media, music, gaming or online videos.  Remember when we used to worry about teens spending too much time watching conventional TV?  Ah, those were the good old intellectual days.

AIR ACTION OVER SYRIA? – From the Daily Beast:   The Pentagon is sending F-15Cs—supposedly to fight the ISIS war. But the jets only have air-to-air weapons, and ISIS has no planes. Which means the real adversary is Russia.  The U.S. Air Force is deploying to Turkey up to a dozen jet fighters specializing in air-to-air combat—apparently to help protect other U.S. and allied jets from Russia’s own warplanes flying over Syria.  Officially, the deployment of F-15C Eagle twin-engine fighters to Incirlik, Turkey—which the Pentagon announced late last week—is meant to “ensure the safety” of America’s NATO allies, Laura Seal, a Defense Department spokesperson, told The Daily Beast.  That could mean that the single-seat F-15s and the eight air-to-air missiles they routinely carry will help the Turkish air force patrol Turkey’s border with Syria, intercepting Syrian planes and helicopters that periodically stray into Turkish territory.  But more likely, the F-15s will be escorting attack planes and bombers as they strike ISIS militants in close proximity to Syrian regime forces and the Russian warplanes that, since early October, have bombed ISIS and U.S.-backed rebels fighting the Syrian troops.  Seal declined to discuss the deployment in detail, but hinted at its true purpose. “I didn’t say it wasn’t about Russia,” she said.  This is getting awfully hot, and risky.  Does Obama have a policy?  I doubt it.  But one mistake and we can find ourselves in combat with Russian pilots.  That could really ruin the next G8 meeting.

November 3, 2015